IT’S taken four years to get here but, in all likelihood, blink at around lunchtime today and you’ll miss it.

Soon the only trace of this imminent collision will be a giant mushroom cloud hanging over Glasgow’s East End. And by then the storm of recriminations will have begun.

Brendan Rodgers and Mark Warburton might believe they know what to expect from today’s Old Firm derby but the truth of the matter is, although both of these men might think they’ve seen it all during their time down south, they are flying into this one blind.

Nothing they have previously encountered in football will have properly prepared them for the madness which lies ahead. Nor, for that matter, for the fall-out which will engulf their new home city from the moment ref Willie Collum calls time on the first top-flight contest between these two sides since 2012.

For one of these newcomers, everything could be about to change.

Rangers manager Mark Warburton

Logic dictates that, of the two, Warburton is most likely to be feeling the heat when this one is over. Still unsure of his strongest starting XI and perhaps guilty of over-tinkering with his team, the Rangers manager has lost some of the balance and energy from last season’s procession into the Premiership.

Having introduced Joey Barton and Niko Kranjcar to his template at considerable expense, the manager will want desperately to prove that his vision works.

He signed both in the belief they would add genuine craft and guile to his team. But while this pair possess undoubted talent, they have also slowed the tempo of Warburton’s team and knocked the balance of his midfield off kilter.

And while he is still experimenting with his new recruits, Celtic and Rodgers go into this game with momentum building after an unblemished start to their title defence coupled with a successful venture through the minefield of the Champions League qualifiers.

Right now, all is just about perfect in Rodgers’ world. An emphatic win today will further convince Celtic’s supporters that they are witnessing the arrival of a new Messiah, the likes of which has not been seen since Martin O’Neill touched down in a trophy-laden whirlwind at the turn of the millennium.

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Rodgers has been bankrolled generously by his new bosses over the summer and the early indications are that he has spent that money wisely, re-establishing a gulf in quality between his side and Warburton’s.

That gap appeared to have been all but wiped out last season when Rangers stepped up from the second tier to dismantle Ronny Deila’s Celtic in a Scottish Cup semi-final which came as a shock to the senses.

That Hampden win was probably the crowning moment of Warburton’s first campaign in Scottish football. But he would be badly mistaken if he assumes that success will protect him from the blast should his re-jigged side – which has been searching for form since the new season began – be taken apart today against a frenzied backdrop at the home of the champions.

Also, Warburton would be wrong to think last season’s trip to the national stadium has fully familiarised him – or his players for that matter – with the ferocious extremities of this fixture.

In that respect, Hampden was just a taster for today’s journey across the Clyde.

They are about to emerge into a boiling cauldron of noise and furious ill will and not until they are shoved out there, into the middle of the mayhem, will they truly learn about their own capabilities as well as their limitations.

Only then will the manager and his players discover if they are able to remain calm and composed enough to function properly in such a merciless, hostile environment. Some of these players may wilt. Some may thrive.

But most of all, Warburton will have to keep a completely clear, uncluttered head because the decisions he makes will be key to his team’s chances of survival.

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For example, how does he solve this Barton and Kranjcar conundrum? Will he swallow his own pride and sacrifice one of these star names from his starting XI? Or maybe even both?

There must be a temptation to revert to the Andy Halliday, Jason Holt axis on which last season’s success was built. Or to find a place for Jordan Rossiter who was lured north from Liverpool with this particular fixture as a carrot?

Or does he stick to his guns in the belief that the big-game experience of Barton and Kranjcar will come to the fore when it matters most of all?

And that’s before he attempts to bolster a defence which has been creaking loudly since last summer but which has not been attacked as viciously as it is likely to be today.

For Rodgers, an obvious question mark hangs over the fitness of Leigh Griffiths and the Irishman will be hoping his medical team have worked wonders overnight because the striker is by far the most dangerous part of Celtic’s armoury.

If Griffiths does not make it then the manager’s side will be significantly weakened – and at the worst possible moment.

Struggling to be fit: Leigh Griffiths

And then there’s the threat of the unknown. Is Rodgers really ready and robust enough for this test? Have his players recovered mentally from last season’s beating at Hampden or might they start to unravel if Rangers rediscover their slick, passing game?

The answers to all of this and more will be here in next to no time and once they’ve been delivered the post-mortem can begin.

Most of all, though, it must be hoped that these two teams lay on a spectacle which enthralls and entertains in equal measure as this derby is, without question, Scottish football’s unique selling point.

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For a league which had become mundane, suddenly all SPFL is about to break loose.

Yes, as ever, it will be surrounded by the usual toxicity of the Old Firm. Sectarianism and filth will undoubtedly prevail and this was hardly helped by Rangers’ trip to Belfast last weekend when Warburton and his players were photographed on the Windsor Park pitch with members of a local flute band.

This was a dreadful and crass PR misjudgement. In this day and age, both clubs should re-double their efforts to leave this baggage well behind.

There is a football match for this pair to be getting on with. And it will be over before you know it.